Review: A Flower in the Snow by Mark G. Cosman

Mark Cosman’s writing began when his daughter, Berlyn, was murdered at her high school prom party. His book, “A Flower in the Snow” contains the searing personal account of his daughter’s murder and its heart wrenching aftermath. His odyssey in search of answers to the most profound questions we ask ourselves brought Mark to also write “Descent of the Gods” and “The Kids from the River.” Fiction novels, the works dramatize the hidden consequences of our actions we unknowingly enter.

My Review:

Not to long ago I received an email from author Mark G. Cosman with the request to read a couple of his books. This review is for the book A Flower in the Snow, which is Marks side of the brutal murder of his teenage daughter, Berlyn.

The book starts off immediately with the family learning of Berlyn’s death and then having to deal with it. We meet her father, and the author of this book, Mark. As well as her mother and sister, Susan and Morgan. As the book progresses we see the struggles the family goes through. For instance, Morgan struggles with school so much that her parents had to pull her out all together and home school her. Berlyn’s mother seemed to take the news just as bad we saw this when Cosman mentions in the book how he could see his wife struggling in the sense that she was not the same wife he had married. This might sound weird but I believe he meant it in a way that his wife was just hurting not that she had actually morphed into a completely new person all together.

An interesting part to the book were the scenes where we learned a lot about Mark and his wifes past, as well as his past alone. We first found that Cosman believed his daughters death ultimately went back to the daughter that him and his wife gave up for adoption. Reading that was absolutely heartbreaking. I cannot imagine how hard it is to lose a daughter, and then on top of that believe it is potentially your fault.

After this chunk of the book we learn about Mark’s childhood at home with his mother, father and estranged brother Jay. I have to say I was very disheartened reading about how Jay was treated. I do not know if thats just how disorders and things like that were dealt with back then but either way I felt awful reading how he was treated. I wonder if the family has any contact with him to this day. I feel like I would maybe resent my mother and stepfather but that is just me.

Overall, I was intrigued reading this book and I am happy to have had the opportunity to read, and learn about Berlyn’s life, and death, as well as the rest of the families story too.

No comments:

Post a Comment

My name is Paige and I am 20 years old. I have also graduated from Salem High School, and I am currently studying Creative Writing at Southern New Hampshire University. But don't let that fool you I will definitely keep Comfort Books up to date because it is my baby and there is never a time when I won't be reading!